tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157434072015-07-27T20:28:56.296+01:00ReigniteAnabaptist Unitarian BlogStephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.comBlogger437125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-21591174015062605482015-07-25T16:15:00.002+01:002015-07-25T16:15:54.255+01:00Unitarians and the imperialism of pluralismUnitarians have a problem with pluralism. We think of ourselves as cool pluralists, and constantly tell ourselves we are all about pluralism - that our congregations are full of religious diversity. "We are very diverse people!" we shout ad nauseam. But I want to argue that we're not actually true pluralists.
We're not true pluralists but imperial pluralists. An often unexamined theology we Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-80407545169376498532015-07-25T15:34:00.000+01:002015-07-25T15:34:00.588+01:00We need to be a faithI am responding (admittedly probably too late - apologies for that) to the Unitarian conversations started by the Executive Committee on "Vision" following a Vision Day last year.
Of course this day (as these things always do) ended with a lot of words that are now being reflected upon. But I think the first phrase is in some ways the only thing that matters:
"We want to be... a faith that Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-73622767763570799532015-06-08T22:36:00.000+01:002015-06-08T22:36:42.219+01:00Winning elections shouldn't be the aim
I occasionally feel the
need to write about politics on this blog. There are a lot of people
more qualified than me to talk about this of course, and they do. And
there's all kinds of things I'd want to say that others can say
better than me about politics and the election, and there's not a lot
of use repeating it. But I've found myself shouting at the radio and
TV a bit recently so I have feltStephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-29974484880899675812015-05-27T17:31:00.000+01:002015-05-27T17:31:15.929+01:00An invitation to a conversations about Unitarian AnabaptismIn recent years I've found myself identifying more and more as a Unitarian Anabaptist. This is increasingly feeling like the path for me. But I don't want to plough a lonely furrow on this path, but rather I want to connect with others who might be open to this approach.
So I'm interested in connecting with others who would like to explore what it might mean to follow a Unitarian Anabaptist Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-4984186280719730482015-04-23T18:08:00.001+01:002015-04-23T18:08:44.226+01:00Why Unitarians need to experience orgasms (spiritually)The joke goes something like this:
A Unitarian finds a fork in the road. One sign points to "Heaven" while the other points to "A discussion about heaven." The Unitarian follows the path to "A discussion about heaven."
There's a lot of truth in that joke. In fact I think the situation is sort of worse than that. I would categorise the Unitarian situation as more like this:
A Unitarian finds a Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-30591240605315537912015-03-17T21:56:00.001+00:002015-03-17T21:56:43.799+00:00Churches are not immortalThis is sort of obvious when you say it out loud:
Churches are not immortal.
Churches (I mean local congregations) do not live forever. Why would they? Nothing lasts forever.
And yet we often act and talk like churches should be immortal, and that if they die it is an unqualified disaster.
Of course a church, like a person, dying prematurely is a tragedy. But a church, like a person, dying Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-25265581146886625082015-03-12T22:08:00.000+00:002015-03-12T22:08:50.949+00:00Where is leadership?
When we think about the
state of the Unitarian community in Britain, as I have been doing in
recent posts here, our great temptation is to come up with a list of
all the things "they" should be doing.
What do we mean by
"they"? We tend to mean the General Assembly structures,
the Executive Committee and the small number of paid staff at Essex
Hall.
I'm sure I have done
this before now.Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-54492882211299414422015-03-02T15:17:00.003+00:002015-03-02T15:17:45.668+00:00What does the Unitarian future look like in Britain? I'm reflecting on the declining (perhaps accelerating decline) of Unitarian congregations in Britain.
The numbers are not good. Just over 3000 Unitarians and a drop last year of 200. You don't have to be too skilled at maths to work out that a continuing decline at that rate would give us just 15 years to total extinction. Of course statistics don't work quite that neatly. But when I look aroundStephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-83571868915818757452015-03-02T14:08:00.003+00:002015-03-02T14:08:43.961+00:00Growing, declining and stable Unitarian congregations 2014Following on from my last post I am having a closer look at what the Unitarian membership numbers reveal about the state of the denomination.
Comparing numbers to last year it looks like most congregations are either stable or slowly declining.
The biggest decline is London Hampstead that has gone from reporting 134 members to 79 members. The Annual Report suggests this is the result of a Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-16262542665106725372015-02-23T16:54:00.002+00:002015-02-23T16:54:35.964+00:003,179It's that time if the year again, when I crunch some Unitarian numbers. The Annual Report has landed heavily on my doorstep and I turn right away to look at reporting church membership numbers, and the total number reported.
And guess what? Numbers are down again.
3,179 members of Unitarian congregations reported. This is down 205 people from 3,384 reported last year. A drop of 6%, which is a Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-68095667920557860842015-01-15T18:25:00.000+00:002015-01-15T18:25:18.044+00:00Thematic MinistryI'm excited to be doing a new approach to worship and ministry from next month.
It's an American practice to operate "thematic ministry" - this means having a monthly theme which all (or almost all) the worship and religious education revolves around.
It's most useful for our Junior Church as it helps them plan better, but as a preacher I'm also looking forward to how this will develop our Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-9641447198579535832014-07-17T19:33:00.003+01:002014-07-19T21:21:58.534+01:00What are the theological commitments of Unitarianism?I'm just back from spending a few days with ministry students and probationary ministers for an intense time of residential learning called Ministry in the Making.
One of the topics we discussed was whether Unitarianism had any theology beyond personal credos that we all share in common. Or whether it is only values we share.
I said I do believe that Unitarianism is a coherent theological Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-18466919289866217442014-06-16T19:56:00.000+01:002014-06-16T20:05:42.900+01:00Growing Unitarian congregations 2013More analysis from the Annual Report.
2010 was the first Annual Report to list quota membership numbers, so it's now possible to use this baseline to see what congregations are shrinking (most of them) and which are growing (some of them).
Keeping in mind that quota numbers are a poor reflection of the reality of congregations, I still think it's valuable to do a bit of analysis. Three years isStephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-6580828702150863172014-06-16T13:59:00.001+01:002014-06-16T13:59:36.118+01:003,384 or 3,900 and why "visibility" is not the answerThis is a delayed post of the usual post I do about Unitarian membership numbers reported in the Annual Report.
The number of Unitarian members reported in the Annual Report is 3384, down 84 people from 3468 last year. A drop of about 2.5%.
Here's how the numbers look over the last few years:
2005: 3952
2006: 3754
2007: 3711
2008: 3642
2009: 3658
2010: 3672
2011: 3560
2012: 3468
2013: 3384
Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-42973867602917250212014-06-04T17:36:00.001+01:002014-06-04T17:36:42.612+01:00Resolutions are a terrible way to do social justice
So, how are you doing with your General Assembly resolutions
then?
What are you, or your congregation doing about… what was it
again? Ah yes: Thought for the Day, gold mining in Romania, the Red Cross and
books in prisons?
Can I ask another question? What are you and your
congregation doing about the resolutions passed in 2013? Um, let’s see. It was
something about… drug reform was Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-42557297862752735712014-05-27T19:46:00.000+01:002014-05-27T19:46:11.602+01:00Truth and Oneness (I'm writing here just as a notebook basically as my ideas develop, this is not totally thought-through stuff, this is me jotting down some ideas)
I don't agree with the assertion that Unitarianism is primarily characterised by a belief in the authority and autonomy of the individual. I tend to think this is a post-modern perversion of what we're really trying to say about the nature of Truth. Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-49056808422306975402014-03-05T14:51:00.002+00:002014-03-05T14:51:55.998+00:00The difference between "taking the service" and "leading worship"
"There is a subtle yet profound difference between 'taking the service' and 'leading worship'. The focus on the former is on following the liturgy or order of service. The focus on the latter is on helping people to encounter the presence of God. This is likely to involve an ability to be comfortable with the use of silence to enable people to hear what God is saying to them. Equally the use of Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-38287693185291666862014-01-18T17:18:00.001+00:002015-05-06T20:13:20.784+01:00Bank Street photos
I'm mainly posting these for a technical reason too boring to go into. By you might enjoy them.
Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-52499763178083055382013-11-29T14:39:00.000+00:002013-11-29T14:39:08.851+00:00What does it mean that Unitarianism does not start with an experience of revelation?
Last week on the way back from a few days in the Lakes I stopped by in Kendal to visit the Quaker Tapestry.
I found some inspiration in the history of George Fox and the early Quakers, as depicted in the various panels. I was struck by George Fox seeking answers to his questions until his inward revelation that "there is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."
As I Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-4214305280672040262013-10-27T18:17:00.000+00:002013-10-27T18:17:17.899+00:00LOVE IS ... [censored]OK, this is a weird one, folks.
I was wandering around Google street view, as you do, and checking the street view of my church.
I could see that is was a relatively new shot as it has our (relatively) new noticeboard on. I zoomed into the noticeboard to get a better look.
I recognised that it had the temporary sign up that said, "LOVE is the doctrine of this church" - but what was weird was Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-64555555787754354242013-08-20T11:53:00.001+01:002013-08-20T11:53:59.846+01:00Disappointed in Rowan WilliamsRowan Williams has always seemed like he has the potential to be a great Christian leader. There's a lot of great things about him. But he has disappointed me.
He spoke recently about whether he had let down GLBT people in his time as Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. But it actually wasn't this issue that has disappointed me. It was only reading about this talk in an article recently that I Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-11771757058550519842013-07-23T17:03:00.000+01:002013-07-23T17:03:03.251+01:00For every child born yesterday
For every child born in Britain yesterday, I wish them a happy, long and meaningful life.
I wish them the right to grow up with all the joys of childhood and a stable and happy family life.
I wish them the right to privacy as a child and as an adult.
I wish them the right to marry whomever they happen to fall in love with.
I wish them the right to choose their own religious or spiritual Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-5639577060647109902013-07-23T15:49:00.001+01:002013-07-23T15:49:47.264+01:00Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual and Polysexual Perspectives
Although it's already been out for about eighteen months, I've only just found out I've been published in a book.
Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual and Polysexual Perspectives edited by Loraine Hutchins and H Sharif Williams is a reissue of an special edition of The Journal of Bisexuality. It contains my essay, "Bi Christian Unitarian: A Theology of Transgression."
If Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-40033746681397156862013-07-22T17:27:00.000+01:002013-07-22T17:27:00.034+01:00Reason needs traditionThis is partly a second part of my review of William Murray's book on Religious Humanism, partly an ongoing set of thoughts I've been having for a while.
Murray's chapter "The Responsible Search for Truth" talks about the important place of reason in humanism. He writes, "The important thing is to be a reflective and reasonable person who does not accept beliefs as true simply because they are Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15743407.post-8267327149484163162013-07-09T20:23:00.000+01:002013-07-09T20:23:24.288+01:00“Reason and Reverence” – A Ponderous Book Review
The last time I was in the States, five years ago (almost to
the day in fact) I bought this book from the Unitarian Universalist Association
bookshop on Beacon Hill, Boston:
Reason and Reverence: Religious Humanism for the 21st
Century by William R Murray
I glanced at it sunbathing on Boston Common, and have not
really looked at it since then, until about a month ago when I started Stephen Lingwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05785168356362616200noreply@blogger.com3